History professor Gerda Lerner, one of the major forces behind the field of women’s history. (Credit: University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Women’s history is a relatively new academic branch, so finding the right resources when you’re pursuing good research paper topics in the field can be important. Whether you’re researching famous women in history, famous black women or women of color, or are focused on an aspect of more general topics such as women’s suffrage, you want to be sure that your resources are relevant. To help celebrate Women’s History Month (March), here are some tips for finding good research paper topics in women’s history, and following up those ideas with solid research.

Women’s history

The field of women’s history didn’t really begin as an academic discipline until the 1960s. At the forefront of the movement to not only represent women’s stories in history but to focus on the impact women have made—a topic previously ignored in most history classes—was Gerda Lerner. Read more →

In honor of Women’s History Month, we at Questia have released a list of our library’s top ten most studied female painters, and made the following reference works on each of them available for free this month! Visit our topic page on women artists for additional research.

Frida Kahlo—Born in 1907 in Coyoacán, Mexico, Frida Kahlo painted her first self-portrait Self-Portrait Wearing a Velvet Dress one year after sustaining serious injuries in a streetcar accident. Later in life, she was awarded the National Prize of Arts and Sciences by the Education Ministry. [Sánchez, Cynthia A. “2: Latin American Women Artists.” Women Artists of Color: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook to 20th Century Artists in the Americas. Ed. Phoebe Farris. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999. 125-230. Questia. Web. 20 Mar. 2012.] Read more →